# The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2004, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend—
the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1967), the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1971), the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/1814) and the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/207) (“the Principal Regulations”) in respect of certain provisions in the income and capital disregard Schedules to those Regulations (regulations 2 to 5);
the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 as a consequence of the cessation of the payment of a residential allowance or special amounts to those residing in residential care or nursing homes or who are in residential accommodation (regulation 6);
the Social Security (Work-focused Interviews for Lone Parents) and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/1926) (“the Work-focused Interviews for Lone Parents Regulations”) to provide that lone parents who are entitled to income support on 5th April 2004 shall be required to take part in work-focused interviews regardless of the age of their youngest child (regulation 7);
the Social Security (Overlapping Benefits) Regulations 1979 (S.I. 1979/597), the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987, the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992 and the Social Security (Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/455) as a result of changes to the rates of working tax credit and child tax credit from 6th April 2004 and child benefit from 12th April 2004 (regulations 8 to 11);
the Children (Leaving Care) Social Security Benefits Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/3074) in relation to a prescribed category of children who have left the care of a local authority to whom section 6 of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (c. 35) does not apply (regulation 12).
Regulations 2 to 5 of these Regulations amend the income disregard Schedules of the Principal Regulations to make provision for one paragraph to disregard (with certain exceptions) any payment made to a claimant or his partner pursuant to section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 (c. 50) or section 2 of the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990 (c. 35) in the calculation of income other than earnings.
The capital disregard Schedules of the Principal Regulations are similarly amended so that one paragraph provides for payments made pursuant to section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 or section 2 of the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990 to be disregarded as capital. The amendments also provide for the capital disregard to apply only for a period of 52 weeks from when the payment is received, and for the removal of a £200 limit on the disregard of training bonus payments.
Certain paragraphs of those Schedules which refer to the disregard of specific payments made pursuant to those Acts are consequentially amended or omitted.
Regulation 6 amends the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 as a consequence of the cessation of the payment of a residential allowance or special amounts to recipients of income-based jobseeker’s allowance who are residing in residential care homes or nursing homes or who are in residential accommodation as defined in regulation 85(4) of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996.
Regulation 6(2) amends regulation 86C of the 1996 Regulations in consequence of the omission of certain paragraphs of Schedule 5A to the 1996 Regulations.
Regulation 6(3) omits paragraph 6 of Schedule 5A to the 1996 Regulations as a consequence of the cessation of the payment of the special amounts to recipients of income-based jobseeker’s allowance who are residing in residential accommodation provided by the local authority.
Regulation 7(2) of these Regulations substitutes a new sub-paragraph for sub-paragraph (g) of regulation 1(3) of the Work-focused Interviews for Lone Parents Regulations to provide that a lone parent who is entitled to income support on 5th April 2004 and who has a child (which is defined in section 137(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (c. 4) as being a person who is under the age of 16) shall be required to take part in a work-focused interview in accordance with those Regulations.
Regulation 8 amends the Social Security (Overlapping Benefits) Regulations 1979 to ensure that the adjustments of benefit by reference to the rate of child benefit in respect of the only, elder or eldest child or payable in respect of a child of a lone parent remain the same despite an increase in the difference between the rates of child benefit from 12th April 2004.
Regulations 9 and 10 amend the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 and the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992 to provide that the amount of working tax credit or child tax credit to be taken into account when assessing entitlement to housing benefit or, as the case may be, council tax benefit shall be the amount of tax credit awarded less any deduction which is being made in order to recover any overpayment of tax credit.
Regulation 11 amends the Social Security (Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2003 to increase with effect from the first day of the first benefit week to commence for a claimant of income support or a jobseeker’s allowance on or after 12th April 2004 the income support or jobseeker’s allowance income disregard for families in which there is a child under the age of one.
Regulation 12 amends the Children (Leaving Care) Social Security Benefits Regulations 2001 in order to apply section 6 of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 to children who have left the care of a local authority in England or Wales on or after 1st April 2004 and who subsequently reside in Scotland.
A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/565/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2004/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.